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UN’s Free & Equal Campaign video gave me chills

The video, a part of a global education campaign for LGBT equality, from the United Nations gave me chills for two reasons. First, it’s chilling in a creepy, scary kind of way to hear out loud that a person's sexual orientation and/or gender identity is punishable by death at worst and legal recourse at best in 76, I repeat sev-en-ty-six, 76 countries. Yikes! That should be enough to move any anti-violence activist into hyper drive.

In a less creepy, more hopeful kind of way, I got chills because I feel privileged to be a part of an age where major global institutions identify heterosexist discrimination and violence as unacceptable. This, combined with recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings on DOMA and having the first U.S. president who supports marriage equality, makes this an epic age.

It’s starting to feel like the tides are turning. Not too long ago I dreaded the daily headlines. Now, I read many more hopeful stories. I learn about how members of the press are learning to report the news in a way that disrupts victim blaming. And, like the Free & Equal Campaign, huge institutions surprise me with hopeful initiatives.

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